Hi all,

 

I am looking at replacing some aging parts of my current 775 unraid server. I have an NSC-800, silent psu and sas card which I would like to re use. I am looking for recommendations on a suitable MOBO, CPU and RAM.

 

My goal is to virtualise unraid and several Windows VMs (Plex + a ventrilo server) all within an ITX form factor.

 

Requirements:

ITX

VTd

HDMI, DVI or DP output for passthrough to Windows VM (I'm guessing this means I would need an i5 as xeons do not support onboard gfx?)

PCIE slot for expansion card

 

Nice to have:

Low TDP/power cost

 

I've read a LOT of posts both here and other various websites. Unfortunately I haven't come across anything that lists both current hardware and ticks all the boxes (a lot of builds that seem perfect use hardware no longer available). There are a fair few posts floating around where people have purchased hardware that doesnt quite work.

 

Suiting the above requirements is the most important factor - more than happy to spend more money if it means I get the right solution rather than trying to cut corners.

 

Thanks

Hi all,

 

I am looking at replacing some aging parts of my current 775 unraid server. I have an NSC-800, silent psu and sas card which I would like to re use. I am looking for recommendations on a suitable MOBO, CPU and RAM.

 

My goal is to virtualise unraid and several Windows VMs (Plex + a ventrilo server) all within an ITX form factor.

 

Requirements:

ITX

VTd

HDMI, DVI or DP output for passthrough to Windows VM (I'm guessing this means I would need an i5 as xeons do not support onboard gfx?)

PCIE slot for expansion card

 

Nice to have:

Low TDP/power cost

 

I've read a LOT of posts both here and other various websites. Unfortunately I haven't come across anything that lists both current hardware and ticks all the boxes (a lot of builds that seem perfect use hardware no longer available). There are a fair few posts floating around where people have purchased hardware that doesnt quite work.

 

Suiting the above requirements is the most important factor - more than happy to spend more money if it means I get the right solution rather than trying to cut corners.

 

Thanks

 

How much transcoding does your Plex server do?  That will be a big factor in your choice of CPU which will affect TDP/power output.

I'd be inclined to use a good server board ... something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157467

 

Install a pair of 8GB ECC modules (16GB total) and a Xeon E3-1200 series CPU with embedded graphics (Yes, Xeons do have this option) ...  e.g. an E3-1246v3 or E3-1276v3  ... and you'll have a very nice system that has plenty of "horsepower" to run multiple VM's.

 

The only "missing" feature from your list is a DVI/HDMI output -- but you can easily support a full HD panel with the VGA output.    ... and ECC memory and IPMI are certainly worthwhile tradeoffs for living with a VGA video output